Reds @ Giants, 5/10

The San Francisco Giants are back home. That means there’s no snow. No weather in the 30s.

And also no live ballparks.

After four days at the Great American Ballpark and Coors Field, the Giants return to Oracle Park, where baseballs go to live out their final days. Over the last six games, they’ve averaged 8.6 runs and 1.8 dingers per game.

That will come to an abrupt end, but perhaps the bats have awoken a little bit, and will be ready to go against the Cincinnati Reds, whom the Giants split a four-game series with just a few days ago.

They’ll be up against one of their former prospects, Luis Castillo, who ended up in Cincinnati in the Mike Leake trade. Castillo’s last start came against the Giants, and, save for one mistake, it was pretty good. He lasted seven innings, and gave up just four hits and two walks, while striking out nine.

The Giants did get four runs against Castillo, thanks in large part to a three-run home run by Buster Posey. But Posey, now on the Injured List, isn’t around for an encore performance.

San Francisco is sending out Dereck Rodríguez, who may be pitching for his rotation spot. Rodríguez has struggled mightily lately, and another rough outing could see him lose his turn for a while.

In his last two contests - the last of which came against the Reds - Rodríguez has pitched eight innings, and allowed 15 hits, eight walks, 14 runs, and 12 earned runs. During that span, batters have hit home runs off him more often than they’ve struck out.

It’s clear that the Giants want to give Tyler Beede a chance, and so far they’ve accommodated that with phantom IL trips for both Derek Holland and Drew Pomeranz. It’s only a matter of time before Rodríguez becomes a temporary casualty if he can’t turn things around.

After hitting his first two home runs of the season yesterday, including one off a right-handed reliever, Tyler Austin has been rewarded with his first start against a righty. We’ll see how he does.

Meanwhile, Kevin Pillar is out of the lineup for the first time since joining the Giants.

Giants lineup:

1. Joe Panik - 2B
2. Steven Vogt - C
3. Evan Longoria - 3B
4. Brandon Belt - 1B
5. Mac Williamson - LF
6. Brandon Crawford - SS
7. Tyler Austin - RF
8. Steven Duggar - CF
9. Dereck Rodríguez - P

Reds lineup:

1. Nick Senzel - CF
2. Joey Votto - 1B
3. Eugenio Suárez - 3B
4. Jesse Winker - LF
5. Yasiel Puig - RF
6. Derek Dietrich - 2B
7. José Iglesias - SS
8. Luis Castillo - P
9. Tucker Barnhart - C